Panel on the Global Network Initiative
June 4th, 2009I ran into this video of a panel on the Global Network Initiative (The video at the source has some useful taps).
Although the positive tone is dominant, there seems to be a little discomfort discussing the initiative and the issues it is seeking to confront, for instance around the issue of working together with law enforcement and answering to subpoenas. Nicole Wong does answer the question about US law enforcement subpoenas, but to say that she is happy about it or deserves compliments for the information she gives would be an overstatement. Google and others should be much more transparent about their interaction with law enforcement in the US and abroad and hopefully GNI will provide the framework do do that. Now their log retention policy FAQ states:
Will governments be able to subpoena server log data after it is anonymized? Will anonymized data still be able to identify an individual user by cookie or IP address?
Google does comply with valid legal process, such as search warrants, court orders, or subpoenas seeking personal information. Logs anonymization does not guarantee that the government will not be able to identify a specific computer or user, but it does add another layer of privacy protection to our users’ data.Will this policy change make it more difficult for law enforcement to prevent and detect
crime or child exploitation?
No, current laws allow the government to request that companies preserve user data. We regularly comply with such laws.[...]
How many subpoenas for server log data does Google receive each year?
As a matter of policy, we don’t provide specifics on law enforcement requests to Google.
It’s not generally forbidden to provide these data, so let’s organize them and make them universally accessible and useful. UPDATE: Chris Soghoian issued a FOIA request relating to this kind of information.
The GNI was launched about half a year ago. It’s still looking for an executive director and the webiste does not give any information about the board of directors that is supposed to govern the GNI. In other words, formally, the GNI does not really exist yet. To stay positive, this means that once it really starts to function, much could come out of it.